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| Robert Hudson (right) with family members. |
by Joanna (JuJuBe)
I heard this story about a week or so ago, but have not had the opportunity to address it yet. It is yet another example of egregious police misconduct, this time leading to the death of a 72 year old man. Of course, the police are disputing the accuracy of the events in question, but THEIR claims as to what actually happened, they are just patently ridiculous.
A Queens widow says her husband of 52 years died of a heart attack because two cops made him rush home in the cold to get her identification.Ok, so the police want to make the claim that they told Mr. Hudson that they could write the summons without further identification, and claim that HE INSISTED on walking home to get the ID?? While his car was readily available?? AND he was a 72 year old man? And they really expect us to believe this?
Robert and Doris Hudson, both 72, pulled up in their van in front of a Queens Village pharmacy on Jan. 14 so she could pick up her medicine. She had just taken her seat belt off when Officers Julio Orozco and Dominick Lettieri walked up and accused her of not wearing the belt.
The cops told Hudson she would be getting a summons, but she didn't have any identification with her.
The woman's lawyer, Bonita Zelman, said police refused to let the husband drive home to get the ID. Instead, he walked home about half a mile back and forth and returned to the pharmacy about 45 minutes later.
While the husband was away, the wife got her medicine and the cops wrote her a summons based on her name and address from the prescription.
The couple eventually got back in the car and drove off. About a block or so away, Robert Hudson collapsed behind the wheel and later died at Franklin Hospital.
"There was no reason not to let him drive home," Zelman said. "He wasn't the one getting the summons. Instead, they had him walk home. He tried to walk as fast as he could, but he's 72 years old and some of the walk is uphill."
Deputy Inspector Kim Royster, a police spokeswoman, said the officers offered to write the summons without the husband having to go home to get the identification.
The widow, who intends to sue, insisted that wasn't true.
A police official briefed on the incident said the officers "showed poor judgment. ... They were doing their job, but sometimes you have to look at other factors."
Zelman emailed a letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly demanding the officers be suspended without pay pending an investigation. The letter also accuses the officers of racially profiling the black couple.
In the letter, the lawyer said the officers failed to "exercise common sense, proper discretion, sensitivity and concern and care for the citizens they are sworn to serve."
It was unclear late yesterday whether Kelly had gotten the letter.
Relatives mourned Robert Hudson at his Harlem funeral yesterday. They got a police escort from the church to the cemetery as a courtesy, cops said. (Source)
Why on earth would anyone believe that an elderly man decided, of his own accord, to take a half mile walk in the freezing cold to get an ID when he had been informed that it was not needed? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And then, add to that the fact that a police official ADMITTED that they officers "showed poor judgment". Well, if they DID NOT, in fact, force Mr. Hudson to walk home, then how was their judgment poor? Obviously even the police official does not believe the police accounts of the story.
This type of police conduct is reprehensible. First of all, why would the police insist on identification that they knew was not readily available AND not allow Mr. Hudson to use his vehicle to go home and retrieve it? Could you imagine this sort of thing happening to an elderly suburban white couple? Somehow I doubt the police would have treated Mr. Hudson this way if he were not a Black man. Not only would they have most likely totally neglected to even write a summons, but they probably would have offered the couple an escort home!
I think even a blind man can see the overwhelming evidence that the police are nothing but a bunch of bullies in uniform. They are the real thugs!
